The Breakfast Club – #BFC530 – is a 15 minute, 1 question Twitter chat every weekday. We chat in 4 timezones Mon-Fri – 5:30am Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific Times. The mission of BFC is to empower participants to make a difference in education by engaging in consistent reflective practice in a supportive community that inspires and challenges one another.
I’ve got a few favorites, one of them being a statistics project- kids need to use data of car speeds going by our school to write up a request for a speed bump to get installed in front of our school #bfc530
Morning! ☀️ This year so far one of my favourites would be doing our STEM paper place marble run. My Ss were so creative and focused!! After we discussed how the marble moves (vocab: under, around) and timed how long the marble stays on our plates! #BFC530#STEM#marblerun
Good morning #bfc530! Tracy from MA happy to make it today. It's been a long while, & I've missed you! Still trying to square away my early morning routine.
Hard to pick a favorite—but I love teaching Shakespeare! We dance, we chant, we walk to iambic pentameter, we act out scenes... it’s a journey! #bfc530
By far the best thing I've ever done is a simple tweak - flipping my feedback in writing workshop, so that I no longer had to do grading at home & Ss were in charge of their own assessment. I worked less, they learned more Wish I'd done this 30 years ago!#bfc530
Working with grade 6 gifted Ss in an art history unit-they had boxes in middle of desk clusters- as unit progressed, they would write jeopardy qs on content (in form of answer)- with value attached & slip in box. Used in final Jeopardy game & amazing formative assessment #bfc530
My favourite lessons are those that my students help me to build/create, sometimes unexpectedly! Their curiosities and passions can lead to great learning opportunities for all of us! #bfc530
I was presenting the digestive system. The Ss helped me digest their leftover lunch food with the help of a ziplock baggie. At the end, I cut a small hole to remove all the liquid, and then plopped what was left on a desk with a "gas" sound effect. I need to film this. #bfc530
Morning #bfc530
Not sure if it's my fav of all time, but this years's opening lesson for my #gamers was to make a game piece out of play-doh. I gave each one color and they had to trade facts about themselves for more colors:)
This in HS! Thx for the idea #TLAP
Morning everyone! I'm not sure my favorite of all time. I know mystery skypes are up there. Does anyone remember the Brian Regab routine when he gets ice cream and his flavors are " both favorites " #bfc530
I’m teaching elements of fiction this term and to demonstrate tone, I’ll have Ss read a variety of birthday cards written for various audiences and then create their own greeting/poem with an assigned tone/purpose. #bfc530
Agreed. & the text itself has within it the capacity to change. Shakespeare's players were for players on the stage, they always had a different audience & interpreted the text differently. That's why Shakespeare will always lead in my book. Never the same lesson twice #BFC530
I also enjoy an orange juice or chocolate milk “taste test.” The focus is on ratios, so Ss can recognize the difference...too much milk vs. too much chocolate syrup! #bfc530
I’m teaching elements of fiction this term and to demonstrate tone, I’ll have Ss read a variety of birthday cards written for various audiences and then create their own greeting/poem with an assigned tone/purpose. #bfc530
My favorite lesson of all time? The Science of Candy. We did different investigations about what solutions would melt Peeps faster, etc. it was messy and fun and reinforced the scientific process. #bfc530
My favorite lessons are probably short story writing. Our students don’t get enough opportunities to be creative and imaginative, but it’s when they’re writing fiction that I see them really dig deep and shine. #bfc530
Regardless of the text I'm teaching, I like to convey the concept of status as fluif to students. So it's a mini-lesson that pops up. Who's got the highest status in the room right now? How would that have to change? Where might we be for status to be lowered or raised? #bfc530
Morning everyone! Hard to decide, I love lessons where the kids end up working together and get that sense of achievement after. @joboaler activities usually do that! #bfc530
Morning #bfc530
Not sure if it's my fav of all time, but this years's opening lesson for my #gamers was to make a game piece out of play-doh. I gave each one color and they had to trade facts about themselves for more colors:)
This in HS! Thx for the idea #TLAP
Also poetry. I think that those types of assessments, and more importantly, the process of creating, is where we see our students shine. And, note, those experiences and surprises can't ever be in a plan book. #BFC530
We started with teeth, saliva, esophagus, stomach, liver, pancreas, intestines, and then made the drop offs. The kids were different body parts to do the work. This sure beat reading about it in textbook form. #bfc530
We've since branched out into student self-assessment in all areas (deep self-assessment as opposed to what we used to do) and in math class it's been life changing for both Ss and Ts #bfc530
My favorite lesson (from this year) was with @NicholeChaffee & @ilesia_m and their grade 4 Ss @Falling_CreekES - after reading LOVE by @mattdelapena Ss identified love in their lives & brainstormed how to show love at home, school, and in the classroom. Powerful #bfc530
Also, at the end of reading The Mysterious Case of Origami Yoda, one of the less popular kids figured out how to make the Yoda, and he was willing to coach others through making their own. He made friends through his willingness to help and he bloomed. #bfc530
My favorite lesson is a lab from @NextLesson called homerostasis where the kids keep Homer Simpson alive by keeping a cup of water at the right level, temperature and color. Kids really get into it and there is much laughter. Everyone comes away of a big "oh" moment. #bfc530
Counting favorite lessons for #bfc530 Several like a Senior's project on evil, Ss replies on pollution's effects, memory journals, more. & looking for the next favorite lesson this term.
Also a start-of-year lesson on growth mindset- Ss make 'brain slime' while we discuss the elasticity of the brain. They stretch it while they talk about things that they can do to work out their brains: trying new things, doing difficult tasks, doing things in a difft way #bfc530
I think some Ts fear teaching poetry because there is an aspect of wildness about it, the garden won’t stay in neat rows. This is why I love to see kids write poetry. #bfc530
Good morning #BFC530. My favorite lesson of all time was the first time we connected using @SkypeClassroom with a class in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Real life learning in the moment.
A: My favorite reading lessons have involved seeing the sparkle in Ss eyes when they read a text, understand & make a connection so deep that they can’t stop talking about it & are disappointed when “time is up” #BFC530
I always enjoyed letting the kids act out a scene/chapter from a book that they are reading. If you can get rid of the giggles when presenting, they are awesome. #bfc530
Exploring the Raritan Watershed in Marine and AP Environmental Science. The kids documented their study in iMovie & applied their learning to their own documentaries. Loved seeing the 💡 & the excitement of being scientists. #bfc530
Also- we do a lesson on growth mindset during which Ss make 'brain slime' while we speak about the elasticity of the brain. They close their eyes and stretch it while talking about things they can do to work out their brain muscles. #bfc530
Right! All summer long I was getting notifications from students ‘resolving comments’ in their 4th quarter story projects, and a couple of them sent me the second chapter or part of their stories during vacation too. #bfc530
Right! All summer long I was getting notifications from students ‘resolving comments’ in their 4th quarter story projects, and a couple of them sent me the second chapter or part of their stories during vacation too. #bfc530
One of my fave activities was probably the pumpkin weight prediction problem. It involved data collection, volume, surface area, linear & quadratic relations, etc. It was messy & long but hands on & interesting. https://t.co/siykIZ9Nz4#bfc530
Exactly! When you see your kids come together and one who didn’t feel like he belonged suddenly smiling and happy to be there, it’s a win. I don’t care what the test scores are. #bfc530
Years later my ex-students will tell me that they kept their copy with them as a mentor text to refer to whenever they needed inspiration for writing (not just creatively - my engineers & math Ss in university too). #bfc530
This!! I think it all comes back to the notion that if I can’t assess it objectively then it doesn’t deserve a spot in my curriculum. But it’s can be huge in terms of motivating them and showing them what their strengths are! #bfc530
This!! I think it all comes back to the notion that if I can’t assess it objectively then it doesn’t deserve a spot in my curriculum. But it can be huge in terms of motivating them and showing them what their strengths are! #bfc530
I also loved teaching my K students last year sketchnoting! We applied it in math, learning about composing numbers and comparing more/less/same #sketchnote#math#BFC530
Playing school at 5:48 am with my first grade granddaughter as teacher. Our Morning Meetings page https://t.co/sJopGOsl2d#edchat#bfc530 Just wrote out alphabet. Teacher coming so have an awesome day of learning.
Wonderful episode @cpoole27! My four ingredients: having the library open in the mornings for activity, listening to my kids, laughing with them (the ridiculous knock-knock jokes), and helping them discover things for themselves. #bfc530#TeachUN
In reply to
@cpoole27, @CristinaDajero, @gilkatgil, @carlameyrink, @DebbiSab, @MrsG_ReadwMe, @SusZanti5, @JustinParmenter, @KyleHamstra, @wheeler_laura, @cpoole27
Students create Google Slide show of future technology with video, animated GIF’s and images. No words. Then students present with all these visuals. The projects are always awesome and the students and myself learn so much about all the cool things happening in tech. #bfc530
Every year in my health class we learned about communication. I would teach the entire lesson and not say a word. I used nonverbal communication and write as well. Students were really unsure how handle it. There are many ways to communicate other then talking. #bfc530
A1: favorite lesson all time was putting a giant shrek in the middle of the room and have the kids write what they saw. Used it for teaching perspective. Helpful visual aid for my ELs #bfc530#rpslead
During teacher appreciation week, I’d have kids write a note to a teacher. Ss worked SO hard because it was an authentic task. I delivered the letters, tracked down even retired folks. Joy abounded. So simple but so powerful. I loved that lesson. #bfc530
“The Sneeze” and “Peg Game” because Ss get into the game and discover math concepts. The discussions are great. I’m also a fan of “The Legend of the Tower of Hanoi.” #bfc530
One of my favorite units is the “Scary Story Unit,” & one of my favorite activities is holding a trial for the narrator in “The Tell-Tale Heart.” There is a LOT of prep work so students learn about the law & they get back into the text over & over for evidence. So fun! #BFC530
